I know generally it's a pretty significant disability to be diagnosed with this disease, but I also know many schizophrenics have very creative minds and can create great artwork. Many think Vincent Van Gogh may have suffered from schizophrenia, and there is also speculation Edgar Allan Poe may have aswell. As for one I know diagnosed with schizophrenia, Richard Brautigan, a fairly well-known poet/author. Wrote Trout Fishing in America, and various poems.. I have to say he is one of my favorite poets, he's spunky and quirky, and quite frankly I love it, lol.

Anyway, the two main reasons I ask this is:

1. I'm interested in reading works coming from minds outside of this reality so to speak, it's normally very interesting stuff.

2. I've always felt I have a very real chance of one day slipping into insanity of some sort.. especially lately, I have been feeling kind of unstable. Lol. And however selfish, I admit it's comforting knowing other's with a disease such as this can still succeed, and do something they love.

I certainly know of various artist diagnosed with schizophrenia, most notably a polish composer/poet who was very talented, but his home life was never peaceful or stable because he was constantly on medical treatment until his disease finally claimed him in his 60s.

Unless I did some research, I wouldn't be able to tell you about schizophrenic writers, but A Beautiful Mind is a book you mind find useful.

__________________
Rant with me - visit the To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.blog

"While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die." ~ Leonardo DaVinci

Never got a chance to read it, but my Dad always recommended it to me. So there must be something to it.
The polish composer is Marek Grechuta. You can find his stuff on youtube, and maybe even a biography in google.

__________________
Rant with me - visit the To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.blog

"While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die." ~ Leonardo DaVinci

When I was taking my undergraduate courses, in psychology, I took many personality tests. I scored high in mania and schizophrenia. My professor said that if he did not know me, he would have ordered more testing. He attributed the high scores to being overly creative. As a special ed teacher, I actually had one student diagnosed with schizophrenia. It is very rare to be diagnosed with it.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

I actually think a lot of authors do suffer from it, on one plane or another. If you think about it, a truly good author with involving characters lets the characters become their own people, with thoughts, emotions, personalities, etc.

I think that pretty much describes schizos; and I'm not one to argue I don't as well. My characters do very much the same thing. In a mild case, the author doesn't let them control their lives beyond putting out more books featuring those characters, but it can get bad.

Just seems like most authors would have it on some level or another, no?

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

"I'm going to urinate in 23 minutes. I tell you because I'm going to need you to help me." ~ Dr. Walter Bishop [Fringe]

We could list a dozen or so excellent artists with schizophrenia, but hundreds more without it. I could list nearly a dozen people with schizophrenia from the span of my life who had no artistic talent whatsoever, and led quite troubled and tragic lives.

I would think it better to be able to fake mental disease when writing characters with it rather than suffer from it yourself.

__________________
Motley

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Well please don't get me wrong, Motley -- and I haven't seen you around before, if you're new, or even if it's late, welcome to the WB! -- I'm not saying that we all do. Hence the mentions of on one level or another. I'm not stating that all authors are schizophrenic, just that they have a mild version thereof, in the creation of characters. That's how it gets started.

I love to write, and I'm rather long winded about it even when I don't intend to be, so it's not like I don't share in the collective author schizophrenia. ; )

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

"I'm going to urinate in 23 minutes. I tell you because I'm going to need you to help me." ~ Dr. Walter Bishop [Fringe]

I'm not stating that all authors are schizophrenic, just that they have a mild version thereof, in the creation of characters. That's how it gets started.

No, it's not. Unless you consider having an imagination to be a mental illness.

I think maybe some people like to think authors are mad, or manically depressed, or alcoholics, or anything else, to mythologise the role of author and make then feel better about being the geeky kid with bad skin and no friends who sit in their room typing all day rather than leaving the house and experiencing life first hand.

I think maybe some people like to think authors are mad, or manically depressed, or alcoholics, or anything else, to mythologise the role of author and make then feel better about being the geeky kid with bad skin and no friends who sit in their room typing all day rather than leaving the house and experiencing life first hand.

Damn, you nailed me. In ALL of the above, even the stuff some people like to think authors are, and the description after. I bow to ye, Sigmund.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

"I'm going to urinate in 23 minutes. I tell you because I'm going to need you to help me." ~ Dr. Walter Bishop [Fringe]

Funny, I did a search on Schizophrenic authors and came by this forum. I was diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder some time ago, and have written several published poems and short stories. There are several schizophrenic authors other than myself, but I believe it is less common than with other mental illnesses since it is often more debilitating. The disease itself, unless under excellent control, makes it difficult to write and concentrate. I've been writing for the last couple years, and usually write for street papers, but have also appeared in several magazines of dark fiction.

If you would be interested in the stuff I write it can be found for free if you do a search for "Jacob Howell Schizophrenic Writer" on google (can't post links yet) I hope to come out with more material soon and a book in the future.

Jack Kerouac and Zelda Fitzgerald were both diagnosed schizophrenics.
Although Zelda Fitzgerald only published one book under her own name, Save Me The Waltz, she was a prolific essayist whose work was published in many prestigious magazines and journals of the day... and it is rumored that she "helped with" (if not actually wrote) some of the novels and short stories attributed to her famous author-husband F Scott Fitzgerald.

^ He wrote the Great Gatsby. I did an essay on that. And only got a B. It's the only time I got a B.
Not schizophrenic but did you know that Albert Einstein was most likely dyslexic and autistic?

__________________
The primary purpose of writing fiction, and then publishing what you have written, is not merely to show off … but to entertain the first and second reader, the first reader being you and the second reader being every other person who ever comes alone to what you have written — George V. Higgins
You know you want to -To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Polack the painter was nuts as hell. My brother thought he was a chicken. I heard my parents arguing over whether or not to take him to a psychiatrist. My mother wanted to but my dad refused. He said we could use the eggs. (I stole that from Woody Allen)

__________________
"Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy." Fitzgerald

I'm flying in from Dimension X to answer any questions. If you wanted famous authors with schizophrenia, I'm not the guy. I do have two short stories published, was a contributor to a TV show, and continue to have way too many ideas to get them all down.

No one thought I was schizophrenic. I am a diagnosed, pill chomping schizo who spent more time in hospitals than I cared to. Reason I don't have more stuff out there? I have a white-collar day job (guys gotta eat and psycho meds are expensive). Wish I knew a way to get more out there. Believe me, television would be a lot more interesting if I could.

You can read my stuff (wish it were still free amazon download) I write a lot of small mainly smart ass comedy on Twitter. You can get the names of the collections there; not here to plug my stuff, just to answer your call for a schizophrenic writer. Be happy to answer any questions. My writing is probably not what you're expecting from a post institutional schizo).

I don't really know of any insane authors, but I am aware that quite a few have some pretty messed up pasts that have affected them in various ways. I myself do not feel insane, but I have been feeling quite bi-polar and emotionally unstable for the past couple of years. How many other people here feel like they have any kind of problems like this that do/could affect your writing?

I was diagnosed with undifferentiated type schizophrenia earlier this month, and I have been writing professionally for about a year now. Or at least I was, I was freelancing as a serialist for an online magazine, but I've finished with that. I've been working on my book for almost five? years now, and I've been writing seriously almost my entire life.

I know this isn't really relevant to this thread, but I would kind of like to talk to some other writers who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia who are very passionate about their writing. My close friends are writers, but their stories don't seem to posses them like mine do. I'm very obsessive when it comes to my writing, and I was curious to see what it's like for other people.

When I was first diagnosed the first thing I did was google search famous writers who had schizophrenia too Unfortunately the research was kind of inconclusive, I'm not sure if I ever found anyone.